398 
GUATEMALA. 
area was the yawning, active crater, or mouth of the 
crater, or mouth of the volcano. Our guide peremptorily 
refused to advance farther, insisting that we were liable 
at any moment to sink into some one of the numerous 
fissures which yawned beneath the superficial crust. He 
added further that in the neighborhood of the crater the 
gases were so pungent and the sulphurous odor so over¬ 
whelming that we could not escape suffocation. 
“ The alarm with which our guide endeavored to inspire 
us did not, however, get the better of our curiosity, and 
we determined to reach the crater. Providing ourselves 
with long staves with which to test the nature of the 
ground, we advanced carefully and slowly. At every step 
the clouds of smoke became more dense, and the odor of 
the gases escaping from the multitudinous fissures more 
overpowering. Our efforts, however, were amply repaid 
by the sight which met our eyes when we finally reached 
the brink of the crater. Nothing could be grander or 
more magnificent. 
“ A few months before, I had seen the volcano of Izal- 
co, with its crown of living fire and its flashing tongues 
of flame, throwing out floods of incandescent lava; 
but sublime as was the spectacle, it paled and grew 
tame in comparison with that before us. The crater, as 
before observed, is in the centre of the level area which I 
have described. It is of irregular width, in some places 
only ten or twelve yards broad ; in others, fifty or sixty, 
dividing the greater crater from side to side. The depth 
of this orifice, or cleft, is so great that the eye cannot 
fathom it. One sees only a vast gulf of molten lava, 
over which plays a pale and sulphurous flame, reflected 
again and again from burned and blistered rocks, fan- 
